Quote:Evidence wise there you go you can see it for yourself.
See what, where?
Are you aware that many people have looked their entire lives... they have honestly looked.... and found nothing??[/quote]
They will find something if they want to find it.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7
Quote:Many people are looking right now and finding nothing.
Many people are looking and finding some spiritual thing... what we, in the know, like to call, a self-delusion.
Atheism/naturalism would be the delusion if God exists and the evidence for God is right there in the universe and present in our lives. It's essentially hidden in plain sight, if you want to see it you can and if you don't you will claim God is a "self delusion" as you just did there. You don't necessarily just get to claim your opinion of something and then it's true though, you will need to back this claim up with something.
Quote:Nowadays, no one has direct contact with any god, as it is claimed to have happened in the tales of holy books, sometime in the past.
People claim some psychological connection, but that's indistinguishable from self-delusion... and then you have Occam flashing his Razor...
Yes people have direct contact with God through the Holy Spirit. I'd argue that atheists have the exact same contact, certainly as they seem to place great importance on morality and they share the same awe at the universe.
Quote:How can you tell if you really are deluded?
Well, first figure out if you were indoctrinated as a child... that indoctrination, on some people, makes them accept any claim from authoritative figures... as these people grow up, those claims are never challenged and, even if some outside entity does challenge them, such challenge is automatically dismissed as fallacious, and your brain works in overtime attempting to come up with some cop out of that particular challenge.
Pffft may as well say you were "indoctrinated" into atheism as a child. But we live in a Christian culture here, Christian/Christs values are our values. If you want your child to be 100% free from all religion/belief then raise them chained in a basement without talking to them for 18 years.
Quote:Can you recognize yourself in any of this description?
I wasn't any more indoctrinated into anything than you were. Unless you had the chained in a basement treatment. But you seem to be able to speak English so I assume you weren't.
Quote:Ah, but no... you were not indoctrinated... your parents didn't make you go to church on Sundays...
Well they didn't, they never went to church or had any real interest in it. I come from a thoroughly secular family. They will go to church for funeral or to have a look around but that's about it.
Quote: They just had a few crosses lying around the house, the world around you hinted heavily on the notion of J.C. and god and the ghost thing... Something happens in your life that you can't explain away and.... you take the easy way... goddidit.
Pffft there were a couple of Buddha figures laying around the house nothing that had anything to do with Christianity at all. No I came to the truth through my own reason. Yes so I'm from a Christian/Western culture like yourself but I think we have the best world culture and we achieved the most, this I would use as evidence that there is something more in it than superstition. It's still a very flawed culture but we can put that down to the nature of human sin.
Quote: Still don't recognize yourself?
Well no not really, I am a freethinker even if I came to the other conclusion based on the evidence. I am open to other religions as well as I recognize the common strands in there that I would say will come from the Holy Spirit. I'm fairly keen on the Eastern religions and philosophies and see parallels between those found in Christianity and Jesus teachings.
Quote:Well, then, do tell us how you came to be aware of the existence of a god. And then, how you got the impression that a particular god was the real one.
I think Christianity has the strongest evidence for it, particularly the resurrection and empty tomb which will of course had to be based on something. You can say it was some kind of mass hallucination or conspiracy if you like but it's still better than anything the other religions have. I also think Christianity based on the true teachings of Christ has had the most influence and has done the most good. I'm also impressed by the philosophical and scientific arguments for God as a designer and arguments for morality and human freewill.
